Stürmer, Kira Arkadievna (1898-1937)

Kira Sturmer was born in Warsaw in 1898 and was a member of the German minority within the Russian Empire. She and her brother Georgei were niece and nephew of the Tsarist minister Boris Stürmer. They supported the 1917 Revolution and in 1920 joined the anarchist movement.

Kira became a student at Moscow State University. There she came in contact with other young anarchists. She was first arrested on March 18th 1921 for her involvement in the creation of the Anarchist Students of Moscow and involvement in its secretariat. She was exiled to Arkhangelsk province for a year. Returning to Moscow, she was again arrested for anarchist activity in March 1923 and exiled to the Urals for another two years.

Moving to Leningrad she became involved in the underground anarchist movement there, along with her brother - see The Anarchist Underground in Leningrad https://libcom.org/history/anarchist-underground-leningrad. Copies of the first and only issue of the group’s magazine Black Alarm were typed on an Underwood typewriter. She was arrested on July 27th 1926 and sentenced on September 18th to the political isolator for three years and then exiled to Central Asia. After this she was constantly harassed and arrested up until her execution on November 13th, 1937. She was shot alongside her husband (Anton Shliakhovoy) and Boris Petrovich Shivobokov.